With men’s best friend—the dog—proving threat to the wildlife in and around the country’s tiger reserves, the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) has formulated guidelines to keep them at bay by treating them as ‘street dogs’ which needs to be sterlised and vaccinated.
But unlike those in the urban cities, the dogs found in the tiger reserves should not be released back in the big cats’ habitat, indicates the Standard Operating Procedures (SOP), released by Minister of State for Environment, Babul Supriyo recently.
“All dogs within tiger reserves will be dealt with in keeping with the Animal Birth Control (Dogs) Rules, 2001, but the clause that after sterilization and vaccination they be released where they were picked up from, will not be applied in tiger reserves,” points out the SOP.
“Feral/stray dogs captured from within tiger reserves should under no circumstance be released back and a suitable alternate site be selected for their rehabilitation,” it said aiming to immunize the canine against contagious diseases like canine distemper virus and controlling their numbers which are on the rise.
The dogs survive on garbage thrown by villagers located inside the reserves as well on the fringes. AS they multiply rapidly they lose their fear of humans and turn feral or free-ranging dogs, according to experts. There have been instances of feral dogs mauling chinkaras and big predators like tigers as well.
In fact, in August, the latest tiger survey had found more dogs than tigers in 17 reserves across the country. There are total 50 tigers in the country. The wildlife experts warned that when tigers prey on them or consume the meat of animals dogs may have killed, the virus can be
transmitted to the big cats.
After sterlisation and vaccination, the dogs have to be rehabilitated at a suitable alternate site outside the tiger reserves say the guidelines.
The SOP has also asked all the reserves to create immunization buffers around tiger reserves to keep wild animals safe from being hunted by feral dogs and to avoid transmission of diseases between them and wild animals.
“The aim is to ensure that feral or stray dogs are handled inan appropriate manner to avoid disease spread and physical injury to the tigers and other wild animals. Due to many villages inside the tiger reserves, the menace is grave not only at the fringers but also within the reserves,” said NTCA head SP Yadav.
As per the SOP, respective field directors will have to set up a seven-member panel comprising local veterinarians and NGOs, animal welfare activists belonging to SPCA, panchayat representatives for technical guidance and implementation of interventions, especially for planning and management of dog control programme.
It also asks to delineate areas of feral dog movement and areas vulnerable to stays and map them on the GIS domain and coordinate with the local animal husbandry department.
Vaccination of dogs is expected to reduce the threat of transmission to wild animals.
Abi Tamim Vanak, a conservation scientist at the Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment (Atree), Bengaluru noted that, the free-ranging dogs posed the biggest threat to wildlife, in Rajasthan and across the country.
“Our data from Spiti, Himachal Pradesh, and Kutch, Gujurat, shows dogs hunting a range of wild species—from black-naped hare (herbivore) to red fox (carnivore). Feral dogs are even known to attack critically endangered bird species such as the Great Indian Bustard and Bengal florican,” he said, as per a report.
Snow Leopard Conservancy India Trust, a wildlife conservation NGO based in Leh too has flagged the issue of the feral dog problem, saying that it is acute across Ladakh, Jammu and Kashmir, too.
